Monday After Christmas

Hope everyone enjoyed Christmas and didn't overdo the eating part. At the moment we are still getting all westerlies here - horrible bouncy flying conditions off the Mount and really only flyable from the top. But sadly we still give it a go... Here's a pic of John's Banshee blasting over the harbour entrance on a close fast pass.




On the construction side, I have finally settled on my method for building the 2m sloper - a combination of sheeted light ply ribs and EPP foam leading edge. Might have a go at glassing the wing and the fuse is looking like f/glass over a blue foam core. Yikes! My first attempt at a fiberglass fuse...

Here's a progress shot showing the layout of the ballast tube and valve with the servo and the two inner ribs. Yes, it's under way!



Happy New Year to everyone - let's hope 2010 is a better year all round.

New Project - The Ultimate Sloper

Well it had to happen - sooner or later I was going to have a go at designing my Ultimate Sloper. Of course there are certain criteria for a beast like this (land amongst the Mount rocks with little damage, fast, energy retention, good looking etc) so it will have big boots to fill. But this is what I'm attempting to do.

From the outset I have decided that this plane will have jettisonable ballast (water) to allow softer, slower landings after a big heavy blast aroung the sky. And we're not talking "lead sled" dimensions here - I just want to try for about 400g ballast on a 2m wing to allow me to explore the possibilities.

So, without further ado, here are the plans with the ballast tube (square box section aluminium) including the water release valve.



And another shot showing a closeup of the valve - not that it shows much. I spent a long time searching for a suitable sized valve. In the end I have butchered and kit-bashed my own using a bit of TLAR (that looks about right) technology. Then I covered it in epoxy to hold it together.

More about the construction soon.